Tonight’s draw came after long queues were reported at ticket outlets around the country earlier in the day given the size of the prize.
Strike Four also rolled over on Wednesday and that draw is worth $400,000.
Lotto New Zealand’s corporate communications manager Sarah McCormack said on the eve of tonight’s draw: “Everyone here at Lotto NZ is buzzing about Saturday’s $30m jackpot.”
She said they are expecting around 1.25m tickets to be sold for tonight’s draw.
It’s the first time the jackpot has been $30m since October last year.
Powerball was not struck on Wednesday evening and rolled over to tonight, where the jackpot is $30 million. McCormack said they typically see people who don’t usually play at lower jackpots grab a ticket as it climbs to higher levels.
She also reminded players that even though the jackpot is high, the odds remain the same.
“So spend only a little – it takes only one ticket to win!"
The last family to take home $30m was from Auckland’s North Shore in 2024.
The purchaser of the winning Powerball ticket brought some of his children with him to Lotto HQ as he claimed the seventh-equal largest prize in Lotto NZ history.
“I still can’t believe this is actually real,” one of the man’s daughters said.
“It feels like someone’s going to pop their head in at any moment and tell us it’s all a big joke.”
The man said he was a regular player who picked up his usual ticket at the Albany Central Superette.
The biggest Powerball win by a single ticket was $44.67m in August 2024.
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